Backup and Recovery

The loss of data can bring an enterprise down – be it for a few hours, days, or even
weeks. For smaller businesses, data loss can be devastating. For home users, it can be
heart-breaking and utterly annoying. Whatever brings about data loss is bound to cause
an organization to suffer – not only from the loss of the data itself but from loss in
employee productivity during the time it takes to restore information from a backup set.
Having said this, it becomes clear that backup is, without a doubt, one of the most
significant aspects of a business continuity plan.

Essentially the term “backup” means a duplicate copy of key information, both physical
(paper) and computer records. An organization must create a decent set of backup
procedures to ensure that data is protected, and then follow them to a Tee.

Vital paper records that should be stored safely include tax records, financial statements,
contracts, personnel information, and corporate documents. Data that should be backed
up regularly includes, but is not limited to, e-mail correspondence, audit files, user
information, utilities and applications, operating systems, financial data and databases, as
well as customer lists. Ideally every byte of data on every system in an organization
would be backed up every night. In today’s world this is not a realistic possibility – due
to a lack of time and resources. These days, you are obliged to choose what will or won’t
be backed up, based on the importance of the data.

Planning for Backup and Recovery

When planning for backup and recovery, you must ask yourself a number of questions to
help you make a decision on how, when and what data will be backed up. These include
the following:

When is the most convenient time to schedule backups?

Backing up data should ideally be done at off-peak hours when system usage is low.
However, due to the type of data being backed up this is not always possible.
Considerations must be made as to when key system data is to be backed up.

Will you store backups off-site?

It is highly recommended that backup media (containing data) is stored off-site in case of
a natural disaster, fire, leak, etc. It would also be wise to keep a copy of the software
required to install and restore operating systems, database servers, backup recovery, and
so on.

How important is the data your systems contain?

Classifying the importance of your data will help you decide if the data needs to be
backed up, how it should be backed up and when it should be backed up. Critical data
(such as financial data, databases, etc) will take priority and should have a long-term
redundant backup set, whereas data of less importance should be backed up daily and
easily be recoverable.

How fast will restoring data from backup need to be?

Bringing a critical system back online would normally be done as soon as possible. Your
backup plan depends a lot on the time it takes to recover a system. Data should be
classified by priority and restored in sequence.

How regularly does data change?

Data that changes daily should be backed up daily. The rate at which your data changes
will reflect your decision on how often the data should be backed up.

What type of information does the data residing on the systems contain?

As well as knowing what information the data contains so that you can identify it as
critical, confidential, etc, it’s important to note that although data may not seem important
to you, it might be to someone else. This will help you determine when and how certain
data should be backed up.

Do you have what’s necessary to perform backups?

Make sure that you have the right hardware and enough media needed to perform a
backup. Choosing backup media is an important factor in the backup and recovery
process. Backup tapes are a common form of media since they can store large amounts of
data and are cheap. They are however much slower than alternative options.

Types of Backup
Each file or folder on your system consists of what is called an Archive attribute. If this
attribute is enabled then the file or folder may require backing up at the next backup time.

To view the archive attribute in Windows 2003, right click a file or folder and select
properties. Press the Advanced button to bring up the Advanced Attributes dialog box.
This will allow you to select whether you want the object to be ready for archiving.

There are five backup types which you can use depending on the importance of the data
you are backing up and how convenient you want the restoration process to be.

Daily
Backs up files that have changed since the last daily backup. If a file is modified on the
same day as the backup, it will be backed up. The archive attribute of the files is not
changed.

Incremental

Backs up files that have changed since the most recent full (normal) or incremental
backup. If the archive attribute is present then it means the file has been modified – only
files with this attribute are backed up. Once the file has been backed up, the archive
attribute is cleared and only set once the data has been modified again.

Full (Normal)

Backs up all files that have been selected, despite the archive attribute setting. Once the
file has been backed up, the archive attribute is cleared until the file is modified. When
the archive attribute is set again, it indicates that the file needs to be backed up.

Differential

Backs up files that have changed since the last Full backup. If the archive attribute is
present, it means that the data has been modified and files having this attribute set will be
backed up. However, in this case the attribute is not cleared so as to allow other types of
backups to take place on this data at a later stage.

Copy

Backs up all files that have been selected, despite the archive attribute setting. The
archive attribute is not changed, so that other types of backup can be performed on the
same data.

Keep in mind:
A backup procedure is never considered complete until it has been fully tested. What
good is it if you backup data but can’t restore it?

Types of Backup Media

The most common types of backup media available on the market today include:

Tape drives

Tape drives are the most common backup media around due to their low cost. The
average capacity of a tape drive is 4 to 10 GB. The drawbacks are that they are relatively
slow when compared with other media, and can tend to be unreliable. Magnetic tape
cartridges are used to store the data, which leaves it susceptible to loss of information
over time or through breaking/stretching the tape.
Disk drives

Disk drives are expensive but very fast compare to tape drives. The disk drive rotates at a
very fast pace and has one or more heads that read and write data. If an organization is
looking for a fast method of backup and recovery then disk drives are the way to go – the
difference in speed between a tape drive and a disk drive is hours compared to minutes,
respectively.

Removable Disks

Using a removable disk such as a ZIP/JAZ drive is becoming increasingly popular for the
backup of single systems. They are quite fast, not that expensive and easy to install and
carry around. The downside is that the capacity is usually (at the time of writing this
article) not more than 2GB in size.

DAT (Digital Audio Tape) drives

DAT drives are similar to a standard tape drive but they have a larger capacity. They are
fast becoming popular and are slowly replacing the tape drive. The tapes come in DLT
(Digital Linear Tape), SDLT (Super Digital Linear Tape), LTO (Linear Tape Open) and
AIT (Advanced Intelligent Tape) format, offering up to 260GB of compressed data.

The image below shows a typical HP DAT drive.

Figure 1

Optical Jukeboxes

Optical Jukeboxes use magnetic optical disks rather than tapes to offer a high capacity
backup solution. They are extremely expensive but offer excellent amounts of secure
storage space, ranging from 5 to 20 terabytes. A jukebox is a tower that automatically
loads internally stored disks when needed for backup and recovery – you just add a
certain amount of CDs or DVDs when you first set it up, so maintenance is relatively
low.

The image below shows a standard tower optical jukebox:

Figure 2

Autoloader tape systems

Autoloader tape systems use a magazine of tapes to create extended backup volumes.
They have a built-in capability of automatically loading or unloading tapes so you won’t
have to sit and wait for the “please insert tape 2” prompt! If you use an autoloader you
will need a third party application that knows how to handle it. Autoloaders use DAT
tapes that come in DLT, LTO and AIT format. By implementing a type library system
with multiple drives you can improve the speed of a backup to hundreds of Gigabytes per
hour.

Below is an image showing a typical Autoloader tape system:

Figure 3

There are a substantial amount of tools and media available for backing up data. When
making your selection, there are five fundamental factors that you should base your
decision on.

Speed – How fast can you backup and restore data using this media?

Reliability – Can you risk purchasing media that’s known to have reduced reliability to
save on costs?

Capacity – Is the media big enough for your backup load?

Extensibility – If the amount of data grows, will the media support this demand?

Cost – Does the solution you want fit into your I.T budget?

Backup Tips
1. Draw up a simple (easy to understand) plan of who will do what in the case of an
emergency.
 2. Be organized! Keep a record of what was backed up, when it was backed up and
which backup media contains what data. You can also make a calendar of which
type of backup is due on a certain date.
3. Utilize the Volume Shadow Copy service in Windows Server 2003. This feature
allows you to create point-in-time copies of data so that they can be restored and
reverted to at any given time. For instance, if I created a Word document
yesterday and decide I want to revert to it today, I can do so using VSS.
4. Select the option to verify backup, the process will take a little longer but it’s
definitely worth the wait.
5. Create a reference point where you know everything is working properly. It will
be quicker to restore the changes from tape.
6. Select the option to restrict restoring data to owner or administrator and also set
the Domain Group Policy to restrict the Restore privilege to Administrators only.
This will help to reduce the risk of someone being able to restore data should the
media be stolen.
7. Create a step-by-step guideline (a flowchart for example) clearly outlining the
sequence for the retrieval and restoration of data depending on the state of the
system.

Conclusion
Now that we have looked at what types of backup and backup media are available, as
well as what to keep in mind when planning for backup and recovery, we should move on
to the “how”, that is, how to backup and recover data using the backup utility that comes
with Windows 2003. We will cover this, and more, in Part 2 of the series.

About the Windows 2003 Backup Utility

There are many third-party backup software packages out there – HP, Veritas, and CA
being some of the big name players on the market. Depending on the size and budget of
your enterprise you may wish to choose any of these. If however, you are after a simple
solution to backup individual systems and data on shared folders, then why not use the
Backup Utility that comes ‘free’ with the Windows 2003 operating system?
Alternatively, why not use Backup in conjunction with another software backup to
provide a complete backup and recovery solution?

The Backup Utility in Windows 2003 will allow you to, amongst other things, archive
files and folders on the current system or remote shared folders to a hard disk and then
restore these files to any accessible disk sometime in the future, create a copy of the
system state, system/boot partition (and any files needed to start up your system in the
event of a system failure), schedule automated backups, create a log file of what was
backed up and when, and also create an ASR (Automated System Recovery) disk that
will save system files and configuration settings. You can also use Backup remotely to
back up Microsoft Exchange Server databases and information about other machines.
Discussing anything other than backing up and restoring data using this tool is outside the
scope of this article, but I will briefly touch on how and when other features can be used
in relation to the backup and recovery of data.

Backing up Data
To open the backup utility, go to the Start menu, navigate to Programs > Accessories >
System Tools and click Backup. This will start the Backup and Restore Wizard or go
straight to the Backup and Restore utility (depending on your previously chosen settings).

For the purpose of this explanation I will walk you through Advanced mode. If you start
in Wizard mode, click ‘Advanced mode’ to switch.

Setting backup options

Select Tools > Options to open the Options dialog box and select your backup
preferences. The General tab will allow you to choose whether you want to verify backup
after the backup process has completed – this is a good idea as it will compare the data on
the source with that of the destination to make sure an identical copy has been made. The
Restore tab gives you the option to replace files, not to replace files or to replace files on
disk if they are older than those on the backup media. The Backup Type tab allows you to
select which default backup type you want to use – choose from Normal, Copy,
Differential, Incremental and Daily (as discussed in Part 1 of this series). From the
Backup Log tab you can set the level of logging you want for a backup – choose from
‘Detailed’ to log all information, ‘Summary’ to log the most important information and
‘None’ to log nothing at all. Finally, the Exclude Files tab will let you set which files to
exclude from being backed up.

The image below shows the General tab of Backup Options:

Figure 1

Performing an interactive backup

From the Backup tab you can choose which drive, file or folder you want to back up and
to which destination. In the left hand pane, click the checkboxes for which drive, file or
folder you want to be backed up. The details for the selected folder appear in the right
hand pane, as seen in the image below:
Figure 2

In my example I have chosen to back up the contents of My Documents on the local

machine and a share located on another computer in my workgroup.

NOTE:
Backup files usually have an extension of .bkf, but you can change it to whatever
extension you like when assigning the file name.

Scheduling a Backup job

To save you from having to manually backup files, you can schedule a backup job and let
the backup utility do everything for you automatically. At a certain point in time the
backup utility will start, and initialize the backup job. This is great if you want to perform
routine backups – like a weekly Full backup of all drives, for example.

Once you have selected which files to backup and pressed ‘Start Backup’, click the
‘Schedule’ button in the Backup Job Information screen. After you have saved the
backup job you will be asked to enter the username and password of the account you
want the job to run under. From the ‘Scheduled Job Options’ dialog, type a job name and
click the Properties button to set the date, time, and frequency of this job.

NOTE:
You will have to be a member of the local Administrators or Backup Operators group to
perform this task.
Viewing a Backup log
Once the backup is complete you can view the report by clicking on the Report button.
This will show you details like what type of backup was performed and if the backup was
a success.

Figure 3

To view previous backup reports, go to Tools > Report to open the Backup Reports
dialog window. Select a report and press ‘View’ to open the report in your default text
editor or ‘Print’ to print to a file or print device.

The image below shows a simple report for an interactive backup job:
Figure 4

Restoring Data
Restoring data is a pretty simple procedure using the Backup utility. Go to the Restore
and Manage Media tab and select which media you wish to restore from – this will be
displayed in the left hand pane. Once you have selected the backup media, the details will
be displayed in the right hand pane, as seen below:
Figure 5

Your next step is to choose where you want the data to be restored to. Choose ‘Original
location’ for the files to be restored to the location which they were backed up from,
‘Alternate location’ to restore the files to a different location (perhaps a different drive or
folder) and keep the original folder structure, or ‘Single folder’ if you want to restore the
files to a folder and not keep the original folder structure (all files will be placed in the
folder you choose).

The final step would be to choose ‘Start Restore’. After asking you to confirm whether
you want to restore the data and give you the option to change Advanced settings, a
dialog box will open and start the restoration process. You will be notified when it is
complete by means of a “restore is complete” message, as shown below.
Figure 6

Disaster Recovery
Disaster Recovery is the ability to recover system operations after a disaster has occurred.
One of the most significant aspects of disaster recovery is planning and designing a
comprehensive backup plan that includes procedures, maintenance and backup storage
methods.

During a recovery, it may not always be necessary to bring all systems and services back
online at once. The most critical systems should be a top priority, with other systems
(such as the public website) being of lesser priority. This will allow you to bring the core
of the system back up and running again before turning your attention other services.

Usually companies in different locations have a bi-lateral agreement that allows them to
use the others site in case of a disaster. There are three types of sites available that will
allow you to restore system operations in the event that a natural disaster destroys your
main site. These are:

• Hot Site – A site that provides the ability to get back online and resume
operations within a few hours of failure, by having the equipment needed on stand
by.
• Warm Site – A site that provides some capabilities in the event of a recovery.
Everything will be in place for the organization to install and configure the
systems to get operations up and running again.
• Cold Site – A physical location that has all the resources necessary to allow an
organization to use it if the original site has been deemed impossible to use. The
 systems will have to be installed, setup and configured. A decision on moving to
this alternate site is normally made within a few hours of the disaster.

I cannot talk about disaster recovery without giving a small mention to the much-loved
recovery console; it’s saved me a few times! When your system does not start properly,
or if it does not start at all, then you can use the Windows 2003 Recovery Console to help
recover your system software and perform administrative tasks such as format drives,
read and write data on a local drive, and enable/disable system services. Three of the
most commonly used commands in the recovery console are:

• fixmbr - Repairs the master boot record (MBR) of a specific disk.

• fixboot - Writes a new boot sector onto a specific partition.
• chkdsk - Checks a local drive and displays a status report, and allows you to fix
common disk errors.

To view all recovery console commands, enter the recovery console and type help at the
command prompt.

Conclusion
As we have seen, planning is the most essential part of backup and recovery. Never
exclude the possibility of a worst case scenario and always compare the value of your
data against your available options. Test your backups and review your backup/recovery
procedure annually to pin-point any drawbacks and look for improvements.

Remember that a good back up solution must be a crucial part of your tasks as an
administrator. It can decrease down time and protect data integrity. It’s all about the
what, the with, and the how – what data you should back up, with what should you back
it up and how you should back it up.

All things considered, backup remains your top method of protection against a Windows
2003 disaster.